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Women's World Cup Pay Gap Message Won't Be Drowned Out By The Victory Parade

They may be champions, but FIFA is still paying them WAY less than the men.

The U.S. Women's World Cup team was honoured with a ticker tape parade along the Canyon of Heroes in New York on Friday.

It was a momentous occasion: the last time American female athletes were honoured in this way was in 1984, when Cheryl Miller and Mary Lou Retton partook in a parade following their gold medal wins at the 1984 Summer Olympics, CNN noted.

Significant though it was, the parade also became a venue for an important message about wage equality.

Women's rights group UltraViolet flew this banner over the celebration.

The banner read "@Ultraviolet: FIFA-equal pay 4 equal play." It was a reference to the group's campaign team to ensure fair pay for women at FIFA's soccer tournaments.

The women's team took home US$2 million from FIFA for winning the World Cup last Sunday.

That's more than Women's World Cup winners were paid previously, but it's also 94 per cent less than Germany took for winning the Men's World Cup in 2014.

Indeed, that amount is less than the $6 million men's teams received just for qualifying.

FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke has dismissed as "nonsense" comparisons between women's and men's pay, saying that the Men's World Cup brings in revenue of around $4.5 billion, which pays for all the tournaments it puts on.

Fox's broadcast of the Women's World Cup brought in $40 million in advertising revenue, said The Wall Street Journal.

That compares to $529 million for the 2014 men's tournament, Business Insider reported.

She also said the Women's World Cup winners are taking home a bigger share of the revenue than the German team received from their competition.

The question people should be asking, Ferrp said, is "why fans and sponsors are less interested in supporting women's sports."

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